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Every time there is a serious incident involving a motorist and a bicycle rider, there is a resulting backlash against cyclists in general. While acknowledging that bike riders indeed have a legal right to the road, many question the notion, if not the sanity, of any rider who exercises that right.

Despite deep-seated feelings of betrayal from neighbors of the Magnolia Trace development in Martinez, it’s highly likely the subdivision will be a success.

After all, it has nicer homes and landscaping that much of the surrounding area, including many of those occupied by longtime residents who have been vocal in opposition to the “affordable housing” project.

One of the revelations that surfaced from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was that the deranged gunman, Adam Lanza, carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition, enough to kill all 450 children in the school.

If you’re any kind of history buff, I’d highly recommend a little day trip in a few weeks.

Don’t worry; the Super Bowl will be over by then, so there’s no reason to sit in front of the television.

Less than an hour away, the quaint city of Washington, Ga., and Wilkes County hold their annual Revolutionary Days Feb. 8-10.

Yeah, a lot of it is the usual hokie stuff that you get from historical re-enactments: A lot of grown men and women dressed in period costumes, talking about the minutia of somewhat minor events with local significance.

Accused of looting nearly $192,000 from the Stratford Property Owners Association where she served as treasurer, Vanover is expected to be charged soon. Police, prosecutors and courts will take care of the rest.

This isn’t the first time, nor the last, that someone associated with a homeowners association is accused of stealing money from their neighbors. The question is how to keep it from happening again.

Just prior to the election, battery-maker A123 Systems filed for bankruptcy. As the recipient of $249 million in federal money, the Massachusetts-based company represents just the latest in a long line of troubled taxpayer-enabled green ventures – some 34 companies and $7.5 billion to date.

How little different this is from Houston-based Enron’s forays into wind and solar in the 1990s, which even with federal subsidies were never profitable.

Because the new year often is a time for reflection on the old one, and because a friend was asking about high and low points for 2012, I was prompted to review my own personal bests and worsts from the year gone by.

And man, did it go by fast. Is that a function of getting older? It really does seem like just a couple of weeks ago that we were getting cranked up on 2012, and here we are a week into 2013 already.

In any event, here are what I think were my personal best and worst moments of 2012: